Woman gets prison time for harboring runaway

A Billings woman who hid a 13-year-old runaway for three weeks while repeatedly telling his parents she didn't know where he was has been sentenced to two years in prison.

The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/15eElKn ) District Judge Russell Fagg sentenced Nicole Lynn Hutchinson on Monday to 10 years in prison with eight suspended. She pleaded no contest to custodial interference and pleaded guilty to tampering and obstruction during a hearing in April.

Hutchinson admitted that she hid the boy at her house between Oct. 17 and Nov. 8, 2011. The boy said she gave him marijuana and pills that made him groggy.

The boy's mother, Molly Peace, testified Monday that missing person's posters she put up near Hutchinson's house were ripped down and that Hutchinson denied knowing where he was.